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The strip.

66 (13.1%)

Jeph's health.

110 (21.9%)

MY health.

60 (11.9%)

YOUR health.

31 (6.2%)

Family and friends (though not necessarily in that order).

86 (17.1%)

This forum.

20 (4%)

Turkey and all the trimmings.

13 (2.6%)

The interwebs.

47 (9.3%)

Something else.

24 (4.8%)

Spathe Ham!

13 (2.6%)

...must... read... ALL the posts...

33 (6.6%)

Total Members Voted: 173

[LovelyAngel]

Woo Hoo! Claire! You go, girl!

(And, as usual, you rock, Jeph!)

[VonKleist]

[ ... ]
If a stranger came up to me like "How´s your penis?", I´d be uncomfortable too.

Not if you were in the Scrubs cast. Then it'd just be scripted.

... damn, I'm at the edge of my seat for the rest of the week now because of today's installment. °O

*Common-tv-series-interest-five*

[TinPenguin]

Nah, sorry if it's ~~annoying~~ to you, but your dictionary needs some serious revising.

Yep, it does. It needs the words male and female taking out and replacing with "person".

Marten is just about the coolest most unflappable guy ever.

omg marten is so passive he should have written four pages about whether she had bollocks

[maxh]

Finally, another character with boy-parts.  This comic was turning into a total taco fest.

Actually, we don't know if she's pre- or post-surgery.

And given that she's, well, a she, it doesn't matter. Her parts are ladyparts, no matter what shape they are.

[belfast_stephen]

We all have the benefit of reading this comic while sober, but actually the characters are all three sheets to the wind on booze.

I read today's comic and thought Marten's blank look was accompanied by a thought process of "...uh..trans?...trans...former?...is Claire a transformer?...uh...dunno, best say something..."

I've never had anyone tell me that they're trans, and I don't know how I'd react if they did. Probably like Marten - blank look and a bit of misunderstanding. I've had to google trans and read the forums here. All very interesting.

Keep up the good work Jeph.

[Renewman]

Claire is transgender? Really? I thought Jeph was jumping the shark with having Dora and Tai start going out but now he is just randomly throwing things in here just for no reason. It's more like he is turning QC into a sort of social commentary to pander to the more liberal crowd of people out there and in turn, adding branches to this storyline that really had no business even going down that road. Claire is Trans? So what? I have transgendered friends even though myself I'm not apart of the LGBT community. However, there was no set-up, no foreshadowing, no hint in the previous comics at all that the story was take this ridiculous turn and frankly I am extremely disappointed in Jeph.

Of course, I expect people to jump on me for "being intolerant" which I find ridiculous when we just got done having 4 pages of people caring whether Claire is MtF or FtM. 

[Transvalkyire]

Renewman: That's the way to write trans characters. They aren't a big deal, they are more common than you think and they've been around since the dawn of humankind. There's not supposed to be any "hints" because unless someone tells you it's impossible to know for sure if someone is trans.

[Karilyn]

I'm just going to go out and say that, yeah, it's only one comic thus far, but that Jeph did an awesome job of introducing Claire as being trans, for two primary reasons...

1.  She had a well developed personality, interests, and has done many things that don't revolve around being trans.
2.  Martin didn't make the biggest deal in the world about it.

Now, my biggest ongoing concern, is that Claire will be taken over by this one aspect of her character, but I'm pretty sure Jeph will be fine.  I've seen that happen a lot of the time, where a character in a webcomic (or even in any other form of media), and suddenly it consumes all their personality, and becomes the only source of drama for them.  That's a bad thing.

In short, it's okay if Claire's plotline now involves bigotry or transition related issues, but it can't be the only thing conflict that happens to her (or even over half the things that happen to her), because that simply reduces her to being a parody instead of a realistic character.  And that's definitely my highest concern.

I'd truly love to see a transperson who is well developed and deals with issues other than being trans.

[AnalogyShark]

Honestly, I was okay with this comic.  I only have one trans friend, and this is pretty much how it came out.

We were out dancing when we first met (I already knew of her situation because our mutual friend informed me on the way there), and once we decided we were gonna be friends, she just sorta whispered in my ear, and I quote, "I have a penis."  I said, "I know, it's cool."  And we never really discussed it again.  She looks and acts like a girl, and I treat her as such.  It's really not that weird once you experience it.

I think the key lead up here for Claire was Marten saying that she was his friend, and meaning it.  People need to feel comfortable with you before they reveal something like that.

[Renewman]

Renewman: That's the way to write trans characters. They aren't a big deal, they are more common than you think and they've been around since the dawn of humankind. There's not supposed to be any "hints" because unless someone tells you it's impossible to know for sure if someone is trans.

No, you misunderstand. I'm not harping on the comic because "What!? Jeph just threw in transgender character!? He should have told us last week in a hint!" I'm saying that for those of us who have been following the comic for years are starting to realize that things are just getting thrown into the story with no basis for a while now and it only makes me imagine what else Jeph is going to end up doing in the future. Also, I'm noticing a large influx of new people over this comic. Did this get posted on twitter or something?

[LovelyAngel]

As much as I would love to sort through this rapidly growing thread filled with interesting opinions, values, information, and misinformation, I can’t, as I have to dash off to work. So I kind of hate to add something totally tangential and then disappear for the day...

Coincidence or intentional as far as Jeph’s timing, I think it’s pretty cool that Claire came out this week as tomorrow is the Transgender Day of Remembrance.

[AnalogyShark]

Also, I'm noticing a large influx of new people over this comic. Did this get posted on twitter or something?

No, I don't think so.  I've read QC for years, and I've lurked the forums from time to time for awhile, just never had a reason to post before.  I felt my experience was relevant here.

[Chelicerate]

Also, I'm noticing a large influx of new people over this comic. Did this get posted on twitter or something?

No, I don't think so.  I've read QC for years, and I've lurked the forums from time to time for awhile, just never had a reason to post before.  I felt my experience was relevant here.

The same, here.

[Karilyn]

However, there was no set-up, no foreshadowing, no hint in the previous comics at all that the story was take this ridiculous turn and frankly I am extremely disappointed in Jeph.

There actually were some lead-ups.  Clinton and Claire are twins.  We assumed fraternal.  But they were really identical.

Seriously, look at the first panel of this comic.  Jeph copy+pasted their heads, then drew different hairstyles on them.

http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2321

Also Claire has the smallest boobs in the history of QC 

[Catayana]

I just assumed they were the rare male and female identical twins.. Can't say that was really a lead up for me. I definitely didn't see it coming!

[maxh]

No, you misunderstand. I'm not harping on the comic because "What!? Jeph just threw in transgender character!? He should have told us last week in a hint!" I'm saying that for those of us who have been following the comic for years are starting to realize that things are just getting thrown into the story with no basis for a while now and it only makes me imagine what else Jeph is going to end up doing in the future. Also, I'm noticing a large influx of new people over this comic. Did this get posted on twitter or something?

Your other example was Tai and Dora hooking up. There's plenty of basis for that. Both are established as being interested in women, both have specifically mentioned finding the other attractive, and they got along as friends. Is it possible that the change of their relationship (and seeing each other more often) is a bad idea? Sure. But people have ill-advised hookups. It's realistic.

In this case, Claire's a new character, so there's not as much history to go through for hints, but if you read through there are subtle hints. And given the number of characters, it's not really a huge surprise that someone's trans.

[StevenC]

<quoting reduced by moderator>

Seriously, look at the first panel of this comic.  Jeph copy+pasted their heads, then drew different hairstyles on them.

http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2321

Well, just the head-shape. Claire's eyes seem bigger, different ears, skin tone and Claire has freckles.

[Karilyn]

I just assumed they were the rare male and female identical twins.. Can't say that was really a lead up for me. I definitely didn't see it coming!

Just because you (or most people) didn't see it coming, doesn't mean the lead-ups and foreshadowing weren't there.  In fact, if you don't see it coming, then reread it a second time and see it coming, that means it was incredibly skilled writing.

[DSL]

The strip's history doesn't support the claim of Jeph just throwing stuff in for no reason. The Claire character had quite a long public genesis, from postings of random sketches (the female character Jeph wasn't quite sure what to do with) to Clinton's early genesis as a female character (with 20-20 hindsight, I speculate that MIGHT have been a hint), to Jeph's statements he wanted to introduce a trans character but wanted to do it respectfully and right.

As for what we've seen so far in the comic, I read it as: Claire had been struggling to figure out "who" she is and recently made/is about to make her peace with it, took a calculated flyer on trusting Marten, and was rewarded with probably the best response, which translated roughly as "I'm glad you felt you could trust me. Let's continue on as fellow humans."

EDIT: Rereading Marten's dialogue, I'm impressed by how right it seems to me (I'm long since convinced Jeph does nothing by accident): "Yeah, sure." ("OK, you're trans. That's part of you and I'm cool with that.") "Thanks for telling me." (my interpretation, above) "Claire." ("Most importantly, you are an individual human").

Great contrast to Marten's earlier inarticulate terror at delivering a simple compliment to the bikini'd Marigold.

Any other thoughts I have will have to depend on what happens next in the comic.

I was going to say "except for the turkeys," but the OMG Turkeys actually lend a great deal of insight to explosive topcis. Maybe it's the tryptophan.

[Karilyn]

Sorry if someone's mentioned this already...  But there was another visual foreshadowing that Claire was trans which exists.

Male characters do not have lips in QC, only female characters.  Claire has no lips.  That's an indication that she's genetically male, as it's a universal sex trait in the QC universe.

[Chelicerate]

My point is, it is NOT so very fluid. You can look at someones DNA, and look at their genes, and know what they are biology. Their gender is absolutely, completely separate.

And?

Sorry if someone's mentioned this already...  But there was another visual foreshadowing that Claire was trans which exists.

Male characters do not have lips in QC, only female characters.  Claire has no lips.

(image)

Claire is a female character. Clearly, then, some female characters do not have lips.

[Karilyn]

Claire is a female character. Clearly, then, some female characters do not have lips.

I was talking about her being genetically male.  Of course she's female.  But her lack of lips is a visual indication that she's trans.  Passing can be hard for some folks yo.  There's a reason FFS exists.

(I edited my last post to make sure it was less ambiguous.)

[Mr. Doctor]

1. I would suspect she is MTF (Male-turning-Female). It also might explain why she's somewhat older than what we'd expect for a college intern, as it took her a while to get into Smif. You know, an all-women's college?

How old is she anyways? I forgot... 24?

It is also rather nice Jeph for this to do this, he can enlighten some of us out there (like myself) who are rather ignorant of transsexuals due to lack of exposure and public attention.

Same here, I'm quite ignorant in this particular subject and I'm very interested!

Edit: I read all pages... Woah. I'm just gonna lurk around. Don't feel like asking anything atm.

[cesium133]

1. I would suspect she is MTF (Male-turning-Female). It also might explain why she's somewhat older than what we'd expect for a college intern, as it took her a while to get into Smif. You know, an all-women's college?

<quoting reduced by moderator>

I'm pretty sure it was mentioned at one point that Claire is a graduate student. I don't know about Smif, but from what I've seen from other women's colleges, they're less picky about male graduate students (in some fields such as physics, they have the choice between admitting male grad students or admitting no grad students). So if Smif is like that, I don't see any reason why they would have a problem with a male-to-female transgendered person.

edit -- Here is where it's mentioned that Claire (and Gabby and Emily) are graduate students). Also, for the people commenting that they're identical twins, Claire says they're not.

[pwhodges]

I thought Jeph was jumping the shark with having Dora and Tai start going out but now he is just randomly throwing things in here just for no reason. It's more like he is turning QC into a sort of social commentary

Like most cartoons, it is at least partially a social commentary, and always has been.  So that people of different kinds should appear in it from time to time is unsurprising, and is just mirroring what happens in society itself - including the randomness.  There's no shark in this lake.

[TheCommodore]

Another new poster here. Like a lot of other people, I've been reading QC for years, I popped over to the forums to see what the reaction was - and I have to admit to being disappointed. Not surprised, but disappointed. I don't have much to add to the discussion, but it's worth the minute-long registration process, I guess.

I really wish more peoples' reaction to this was the same as Marten's - "oh, okay. cool," followed by promptly moving on to things that are relevant. I mean, obviously, Claire's history is relevant to understanding who she is, and Marten should be flattered that she trusts him enough to share that with him, but it doesn't change who she is now any more than it would, say, make her less American now if she'd been born in France. If she identifies as female, her gender is female. It's that simple, and whether it's rude or not (it is, to a lot of people), it's pointless to worry about her genitalia or her sex (as distinct from gender) or anything of the sort until and unless it becomes relevant. I was really proud of Jeph for making Marten's reaction so awesome (especially since it jives so well with everything we've seen of Marten to date), and I hoped the readership would follow suit a little better. Comments like "this is just Jeph throwing in shit to appeal to his liberal readership" are bad enough, but the stuff about whether this will mean Marten isn't interested because "[he's] not into that"? Claire's a lady. It's clearly that simple to Marten, even though he just as clearly understands that it isn't that simple for Claire and that that can suck for her. That kind of simple, you-are-what-you-are acceptance, in my experience and opinion, is the best possible way to react - or, to paraphrase someone cleverer than I, "all declarations of identity should be responded to in identical fashion - 'that's great! cake?'"

Oh, and as a poly dude, it seems inexcusable to me to equate the kind of shit you take for being polyamorous with the kind of shit you take for being trans. Yeah, society's reaction to me isn't as awesome as I'd like, but as little as some people like it that I don't fit in the monogamy box, it pales behind the reaction you can see when people have the temerity to refuse to fit in their assigned gender box. I'd do some archaeology and find whatever forum threads were around when Tai came out to Marten as poly to see if they supported my theory, but, well, I'm lazy, and besides, the internet can turn anything into a big deal.

Jesus, that was longer than I thought. tl;dr - doesn't matter, have gender.
"Warning - while you were typing 11 new replies have been posted. You may wish to review your post."

[snubnose]

Claire is transgender? Really? I thought Jeph was jumping the shark with having Dora and Tai start going out but now he is just randomly throwing things in here just for no reason. [...]

Err, what ? Why "no reason" ? Its pretty obvious now why she's so much like her brother. I thought the whole thing was arranged in a pretty nifty way.

[pwhodges]

I really wish more peoples' reaction to this was the same as Marten's - "oh, okay. cool,"

Overwhelmingly, it was.

followed by promptly moving on to things that are relevant.

This forum exists to discuss the comic and issues that arise from it.  In this case the issue has largely been one of terminology within the discussion itself.  This may be unfortunate, but I have seen the same thing happen again and again in discussions of this subject area in this forum and in others.  Until society as a whole has fully come to terms with all the variety in gender and sexuality this seems inevitable, so we just have to try to lead the way in sympathetic understanding and clear thinking.

[jwhouk]

By the way, Karilyn? Upon closer examination of Claire's profile in a few of those early strips, she does have "lips". Jeph just wasn't drawing them when we were looking at her head-on.


EDIT: Oh, and anyone who's getting all worked up over this, please refer to this comic: 2217: A Multitude of Options

[marsman57]

Odd, my take away on the impact of the Claire/Clinton relationship is different than most in this topic have presented. I think that rather than showing that Clinton is not accepting of her like some have suggested, that this knowledge lets us see that he actually really does love her deeply and their bickering is just normal sibling problems.

The reason I say this is because I believe if he truly was as unaccepting or hateful toward her as some have suggested that he would have outed her long ago.

[Madmartigan]

Marten's virtues, front and center. Everyone should have a friend like that.

Agreed, Marten handled that seemingly perfectly.  Well done to Claire too for picking the person, moment, and fashion in which to release that information. 

No Marten-Claire kisses then?

Was that even up for an inkling of debate before?   Even before this totally unexpected stealth bomb, Marten/Claire doing anything other than what friends/acquaintances do would have made no sense at all. 

At any rate.

Totally did not see that one coming at all.  I actually had to reread that a second too.  I was like "trans...trans. whaa? ooooooh".

This would somewhat explain the more fiery sibling rivalry now.  Though "trans" is a bit of an umbrella term and doesn't explain it all. 

[jwhouk]

The Return of the OMGTurkeys! What are YOU thankful for?

The strip.    28 (14.1%)
Jeph's health.    42 (21.2%)
MY health.    23 (11.6%)
YOUR health.    13 (6.6%)
Family and friends (though not necessarily in that order).    36 (18.2%)
This forum.    8 (4%)
Turkey and all the trimmings.    8 (4%)
The interwebs.    22 (11.1%)
Something else.    8 (4%)
Spathe Ham!    4 (2%)
...must... read... ALL the posts...    6 (3%)

Total Members Voted: 74

[willpell]

This was a complete and utter waste of a comic.  Entirely apart from my feelings about a character being declared trans, the fact that NOTHING ELSE happens in the strip indicates that Jeph should have found a better way of doing this.  (I hate to pick on the guy when he just got through having hella issues, but seriously, if he didn't want to make an actual COMIC today, he could have just updated the character archive with Claire, stating that she was an ex-he, and taken the rest of the day off to improve his mood.  Instead he wastes the time and energy necessary to draw six panels in which no joke is told and a two-word revelation is discussed at excessive length (a condition which I am now exacerbating).

[Bluesummers]

I don't think it was a waste at all...not cramming it full of text is something of a dramatic pause, I think...it flows well in my eyes.

I think one of the underlying reasons Claire told him is not just because she's his friend, but because she might have feelings for him, and is putting the feelers out there to judge his reaction.
(That's not shipping, just an observation/hypothesis).

[pwhodges]

Although nearly all the strips have a punchline, not all do; sometimes they are simply advancing the story.

[Change]

This would somewhat explain the more fiery sibling rivalry now.  Though "trans" is a bit of an umbrella term and doesn't explain it all.

I think the fiery sibling rivalry is way more explained by the fact that they're twins, or even siblings. Jeph might have had your thoughts, but Claire identifying as trans doesn't really explain anything more about their rivalry than them being siblings would.

[Mr. Doctor]

Clinton strikes me as the type of person who is chomping at the bit for a transhuman operation to make himself into an astral corona-surfing robo-whale (go play Eclipse Phase, kids! It's hella fun!), so I can't imagine a "simple" change of gender or sexual organs bothering him in the least. I expect when the two of them had the conversation about Claire's gender identity, his first reaction was "Psh, that's ALL you want to change when we've got fully-lifelike cybernetic prosthetics available? Plebeian." Any animosity between the two is just typical sibling annoyances.

I agree with this. I have a hard time understanding posts that say stuff like "this explains their sibling rivalry". He doesn't look like he's the kind of person that would be bothered at all and it would surprise me A LOT if he turns out that way.

[pwhodges]

I'm just surprised no one else has mentioned being concerned about Marten's reaction to Faye here - I get the feeling he's genuinely feeling a little down about Faye and others being all happy-relationship-y when he's possibly feeling a little lonely romance-wise, not purely reacting to Faye's abrasiveness. I mean, the abrasiveness he's used to, right?

It does come over as a reminder that he is not so long out of a relationship that he invested quite a lot into.

I think the fiery sibling rivalry is way more explained by the fact that they're twins, or even siblings.

Indeed, from my own experience, the strongest rivalry is between those who are otherwise unequal (e.g., boy and girl of different ages), and so feel they have most to prove.

[Madmartigan]

<quoting reduced by moderator>

There actually were some lead-ups.  Clinton and Claire are twins.  We assumed fraternal.  But they were really identical.

Seriously, look at the first panel of this comic.  Jeph copy+pasted their heads, then drew different hairstyles on them.

http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2321

Woah.  Kinda scary.  Never noticed that before.  I guess it's one of those, "you don't pick it up until someone tells you it's there" things.

Totally makes sense now.  But if that's foreshadowing, that's the kind you really have to look for though.

As for this being random and totally out of nowhere and comparable to Dora/Tai...

It really isn't.  I was one who had a big issue of the total randomness of Dora totally fawning over Tai out of nowhere and how it made no sense in MY understanding of the comic and was thus a poor plot element..

However, Jeph got this one laid in perfectly in hindsight.  Claire must have picked up on Marten's laid back personality and the fact he's friends already with Tai probably helped her just give up the secret in an easy breezy manner.

As others have said, you'd never know a trans until they said/showed it, much like don't always pick up if someone's other than hetero.

[Rockman]

I d'awwwed at the poll results just now.

Great strip today, and as we can see by six pages of discussion and counting it was thought-provoking too.  And it had a punchline.



(slurp)

[Daniel Patrick Moynihan]

I expect this may be answered in the coming months, but I wonder if Claire is a little resentful for how 'easy' it was for Clinton to fix his firework accident.  If they haven't developed much better reassignment procedures in the QCverse, I'd imagine it's frustrating to see self induced harm stemming from stupidity corrected in awesome ways when it's such an ordeal to just get your body the way it ought to be.

The other thing I'm wondering is how this is going to be revealed to the wider cast and how they'll react.  Some would probably react like Marten but I can see a lot of uncomfortable questions from Emily.

Edit: Claire and Clinton are 3 years apart.  They are not twins, Claire is older.

[Madmartigan]

Clinton strikes me as the type of person who is chomping at the bit for a transhuman operation to make himself into an astral corona-surfing robo-whale (go play Eclipse Phase, kids! It's hella fun!), so I can't imagine a "simple" change of gender or sexual organs bothering him in the least. I expect when the two of them had the conversation about Claire's gender identity, his first reaction was "Psh, that's ALL you want to change when we've got fully-lifelike cybernetic prosthetics available? Plebeian." Any animosity between the two is just typical sibling annoyances.

If anything, Clinton is the type to go for dangerous hardcore cyborg surgery and become more robot than human and thusly become non-gendered as he's seems disinterested in the idea of romance. 

This would somewhat explain the more fiery sibling rivalry now.  Though "trans" is a bit of an umbrella term and doesn't explain it all.

I think the fiery sibling rivalry is way more explained by the fact that they're twins, or even siblings. Jeph might have had your thoughts, but Claire identifying as trans doesn't really explain anything more about their rivalry than them being siblings would.

Just to be more clear, I meant the fact they were most likely brothers at birth and typically, the rivalry is more pronounced, in my experience, with brother/brother than sister/brother or even sister/sister.  But that's my experience and I say this with the knowledge of all my cousins from my mom's sister are all female.  The younger brother/older brother is a big thing.  Though not as pronounced as it would be if there were a middle child.

[StevenC]

I expect this may be answered in the coming months, but I wonder if Claire is a little resentful for how 'easy' it was for Clinton to fix his firework accident.  If they haven't developed much better reassignment procedures in the QCverse, I'd imagine it's frustrating to see self induced harm stemming from stupidity corrected in awesome ways when it's such an ordeal to just get your body the way it ought to be.

The other thing I'm wondering is how this is going to be revealed to the wider cast and how they'll react.  Some would probably react like Marten but I can see a lot of uncomfortable questions from Emily.

Edit: Claire and Clinton are 3 years apart.  They are not twins, Claire is older.

I'd say in a world where fully functional sentient AIs exist and robot bodies for those AIs that are indistinguishable from humans in movement and speech are affordable for your average middle class person, surgery should be pretty far advanced too.

[MercuryP]

I did some "coming out" as trans recently (I'm mtf and early in transition so I still look male), and I have to admit this is pretty much exactly what it's like.  You decide you want to tell people about it, you tell them about it completely out of the blue, and if they're supportive they basically say "ok, thanks for telling me" at which point there is awkward silence while you try and figure out what else to say.  Even with people who are open and supportive, oh the awkward silence.

If I had to summarize transgenderism in a paragraph, I'd say that everyone makes a lot of decisions about who they want to be in life.  And while we can't choose our attitudes toward gender, we CAN choose whether or not we act on them, effectively making a choice between happiness and self-actualization, or living a life where you'll never have that.  It's an obvious choice, and for transsexuals it's worth the time, money, and discrimination you're taking on in doing it.  What people generally don't understand, though, is that the physical implications of being transsexual are not exactly a big deal to most of us; there are obviously differences in the values of men and women, and when everybody assumes your values are one way or another because of your physical appearance, you'd like to change your physical appearance to prevent that wrong assumption from occurring every single day of your life.  For people who are willing to understand and support us, do know that people like me who are currently transitioning may be considerably more open to talking about the details of it than people who have already transitioned and would not like to be reminded of their previous life which they hated.

I'm kind of interested to see where this goes.  I don't think there's a point to introducing an explicitly trans character and then not doing anything about it, but I can't really imagine there's that much of a story to tell beyond talking about things that happened in the past.

[SJCrew]

While you worded it much differently than I would have, Willpell, I too think this was mostly a  very 'in your face' comic intended to appeal to a certain demographic. But I'm not mad at Jeph for it. I know he's very keen on issues of sexuality and addresses them a lot in his works, so a shout out to his transgender readers does not seem out of character for him or the comic.

Judging by the responses and discussion in this thread, it appears the comic has achieved its intended effect.

@ TheCommodore: Transgender is worth discussion. It still isn't something modern society is completely used to, and not something many of us are even exposed to in our daily lives, so expecting everyone to be as casual about it as you are is unrealistic.

[FontOfQuestions]

Odd, my take away on the impact of the Claire/Clinton relationship is different than most in this topic have presented. I think that rather than showing that Clinton is not accepting of her like some have suggested, that this knowledge lets us see that he actually really does love her deeply and their bickering is just normal sibling problems.

The reason I say this is because I believe if he truly was as unaccepting or hateful toward her as some have suggested that he would have outed her long ago.

I agree - it would go a way to explain why he's a "good brother" despite being a jerk, no?

If he really had a problem with it, I suspect he would have mentioned it before she did. "Did you know that Claire is really... a man???"

[Lummer]

I'm kind of interested to see where this goes.  I don't think there's a point to introducing an explicitly trans character and then not doing anything about it, but I can't really imagine there's that much of a story to tell beyond talking about things that happened in the past.

I actually think there would be a quite valid point to introducing Claire's trans-ness (what's the right word here? Don't kill me, angry tumblr-people!!) and making a brief (keyword here: Brief!) arc about the "coming out" and then it quickly being over with. It would in any case be setting a good example of how it should be in society, with no one making it an issue at all and everyone just moving along with life, without treating Claire differently in any other way. As I said: The way it ought to be, with trans people just not being anything you even raise an eyebrow at, and accept just as readily as any ol' cissie.

[TinPenguin]

Claire's trans-ness (what's the right word here? Don't kill me, angry tumblr-people!!)

trans-ship

/logistics joke

[Lummer]

Claire's trans-ness (what's the right word here? Don't kill me, angry tumblr-people!!)

trans-ship

/logistics joke

inb4 sixteen furious shipping agents yell at you to check your privilege.

[RyanW1019]

Geez. I read the comic, ask a carefully phrased, non-threatening threatening question out of ignorance and a desire to learn more about something I don't understand, get a few helpful answers, and think, "Maybe this comic is designed to bring the issue of transsexuals into the open and spark discussion/learning about it!"

Then I get up and read the last six pages. Basically everyone stepping on everyone else's toes (intentionally or not) and sniping at each other over it.

If I may ask another question, why do some people write "trans" as "trans*"? Again, I'm only asking because this is something I have no experience with, I'm not intending to cause offense here.